Idle Afternoon Cut Out Cards!

A few weeks ago moo.com approached me about featuring my thumbs up yeti postcard on their site sometime in the future. Well, not surprisingly, this totally made my day and ever since I've been keeping a keen eye on their site and blog to see if yeti shows up anywhere there. No luck on the yeti sightings, but I did catch these amazing cut out cards from Idle Afternoon:


What a fantastic idea for business cards! No throwing out for these babies - they are so charming and zombie related! Awesome! They also totally make me want to make my own anthropomorphic geekery line for my shop too! How fun would it be to act out your own yeti/jackelope/pinecone adventures? Maybe some dino fun too? OooOO! Or microbes!?! What do you think?

Plants vs. Zombies Please!

I try very hard to stay away from video games. I always seem to get suckered in with cute graphics and interesting plot lines and quickly convert to an irrational, obsessive game addict. It happened with Kirby's Dreamland, Escape from Monkey Island, My Tribe, and very much so happened with Plants vs. Zombies. Jimmy - why did you have to show me how cute the little pea shooters were on your iPhone? And I am a sucker for zombies...I mean look at those graphics:


How could I resist? And at such a reasonable price for my iPod! It was official. I was hooked. After playing the game nonstop for a few weeks (beating all the levels, unlocking all the extras, and getting all the trophies) I could move on. Success! Addiction over! But then my ipod crashed on me forcing me to reboot and inevitably lose all my saved PvsZ scores. Rats! Looks like it was time for me to start all over again. I must get this video game addiction from my mom - we'll see if you stop playing Dr. Mario when the batteries die on the gameboy this time mom (she's been saying that since xmas)...

I was extremely glad to find out that I'm not the only PvsZ addict out there and especially pleased to see the adorable game inspired plush Alix from arixystix has for sale on etsy! She even has a pea shooter pattern available! Check out this great picture she has of her creations from her blog:


Oh my those are darling! And what fantastic sewing skills! What fun! And although I am quite the advocate for PvsZ, be cautious - it is extremely addicting...

Peg Board turned Jewelry Stand!

I came across this tutorial the other day and fell in love! The folks at casa sugar show you a neat way to hang your necklaces without them getting all tangled - using peg board and knobs. Take a look:


Such a smart idea! Simple too! And it gives you an excuse to find neat knobs (I know you love knobs mom). Awesome! I do fear that my massive collection of jewelry might make this tutorial a little impractical though... but I still think it's a neat idea...

Canada Day Recap

For once I remembered to bring my camera out with me! And even if it wasn't the most successful of days (no bannock or crepes?), it was apparently photo worthy. So behold - my Canada Day highlights:

1) Crowds. Actually make that a lot of crowds! Celebrating Canada's birth certainly brings out the people!


2) Cranes. Okay - not exactly an integral part of my day, but I did think they made a nice picture. Fraser had a few of his paintings in the art booth too! Not as colourful as these paper birds though...


3) Daunting weather. A strong trend for this spring/summer for what is usually a desert climate. A refreshing break from the 40 degree July 1sts of the past (I do enjoy sweaters), but cut our park day a little short. Man it looks dismal.


and (of course)
4) Post bbq fireworks! I promise you they were much more impressive than this picture, but I am just not quick enough to capture fireworks in all their glory. That and we were up a huge hill avoiding the drunk teenage park scene so the angle was less than ideal. Still pretty though. Kamloops is so pretty!


So good day over all - and extra motivation to carry my camera with me more often! How did you celebrate July 1st (or 4th for any below the 49th)?

Faces in Places

Have you ever noticed how tons of ordinary everyday things seem to be looking at you? Well apparently there is an entire blog about it. Check out a selection from Faces in Places:


I'm glad I'm not the only one who has such deep appreciation for such things (and I'm particularly thrilled about the toast and sunflower faces)! You can even add your own images onto their flickr group and might get the chance to be featured on their blog! Neato! I better keep my eyes peeled and camera at hand! Oh...and full battery power...since I apparently have bad luck with that...

The Sketchbook Project

It was about this time last year that my sister and I started our own sketching journal challenge. We both bought blank page journals on our trip to Prince Rupert and decided to do some pen sketches in them each month of the year! Then we'd meet back up in a years time and check out each others books and see what neat adventures we each went on! Cool right? We thought so. I am pretty sure I dominated the challenge by drawing an average of 1.5 times a month and last I heard from leslie she totally forgot about it after a month or so...regardless it was sort of a fun project to take on and I hope to continue with it until my book is full up! I have been carrying it around with me in a little zippered pouch all year after all so it is always on hand for any sketching opportunities! I'll have to take some pictures of it when leslie comes down to visit this summer and share how terrible of a sketcher I am! (So please remember your book les).

So you can only imagine how much the Art House Co-op's "Sketchbook Project" caught my attention when I heard about it on the paper sparrow's blog! Take a look:

It sounds like such a fun idea! You pay a $25 start up fee and they send you a moleskine to sketch in. You pick (or are randomly selected) a theme for your sketches and once you fill up your book it gets to travel around with the other moleskines as an artist tour! How cool! There are loads of neat inspiring images and themes on their site and I think it would be super awesome to join! You've got until Oct 31st to join then until Jan 15th to get your book in the mail. The tour starts in March and visits six cities around the US. Wouldn't it be fun to participate and go visit your sketchbook in California perhaps? Sounds like a good road trip opportunity (hint hint lindsay) too! What do you think?

ACEO-X 3.0 Submissions

Remember the pointillism mushroom art card I made for Ulixis' ACEO-X 3.0? Well she's posted pictures of all the submissions on her blog to check out! What fun! You can even see the cards my sister leslie and best bud lindsay came up with too! Neato! It makes me want to run an ACEO-X of my own one of these days. Any potential takers?